Tag: New York

On Monday a New York judge ruled that Governor Andrew Cuomo will face a little-known challenger in the Democratic primary slated for September 9.

The court’s decision, which finds that Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor satisfies the constitutional residency requirement to run for governor, provides a look into the factors that courts consider in reaching such determinations.

“New York courts have recognized that, in our modern mobile society, an individual can have more than one bona fide residence,” Judge Edgar Walker wrote for the trial court.

To be eligible to run for governor in New York a person must be at least 30 years old and have resided in the state for at least five years preceding the election. Under New York law, residency requires that a person be physically present with the intent to remain for a time.

The Cuomo camp contended that despite moving to New York City in 2009, Teachout continued to use her parent’s Vermont address as her address for her driver’s license, car registration, North Carolina bar registration, tax withholding forms and other documents filed with the federal and state governments. Cuomo’s camp also argued that Teachout had reported on her 2009 federal income tax return that she lived zero days in New York City and did not pay city taxes.

Teachout countered that notwithstanding her using the Vermont address as her mailing address and taking trips to the state for family visits and summer vacations, she always returned to New York with the intent to make the state her primary residence.

She also presented evidence that she has maintained a residence in the Empire State continuously since moving to New York City in June 2009, when she arrived here to begin teaching at Fordham, and that she paid taxes in New York and North Carolina for the portions of 2009 that she lived in each state.

The governor’s team did not present proof sufficient to invalidate Teachout’s residency in the state, the court found. “Petitioners have failed to establish, under the clear and convincing evidentiary standard, that Ms. Teachout did not reside in the State of New York after June 2009, to the present date with the intent of making it her permanent home,” wrote Walker. “Whether or not Ms. Teachout misrepresented her actual residence address to regulatory bodies in New York or elsewhere for self-interested purposes, any improprieties are for bodies to address and not relevant to this determination.”

Teachout hailed the ruling. “Today we beat the Governor and his old boys club in court,” she said in a statement.

Martin Connor, a lawyer for Cuomo, told reporters the governor will appeal.

In New York, a lawyer cannot enter into, or even negotiate, any arrangement or understanding with a client or prospective client by which the lawyer acquires any interest in literary or media rights with respect to the subject matter of the representation or proposed representation, or transfers or assigns any such interest, according to the state’s rules for attorneys.

The test for a duly executed will in New York:

1. The testator (a person who dies with a will) must be at least 18 years old.
2. The testator must sign the will either herself or by a proxy who signs in her presence.
3. The signature must be at the end of the will.
4. The testator must sign (or acknowledge her earlier signature) in the presence of two witnesses.
5. The testator must publish the will. That means the testator must communicate to the witnesses that they are witnessing a will and not some other legal document.
6. The attesting witnesses must sign.
7. The execution ceremony must be completed in 30 days from the date the first witness signs.

In New York, you can set up a trust to provide for the care of your pet that will be valid for the animal’s lifetime. The trust will terminate on the death of the animal or at the end of 21 years, whichever occurs earlier.

The law allows a human being to be appointed to oversee the assets.

The Justice Department reportedly is considering whether to compel the testimony of a New York Times reporter about the source for a book he published in 2006 that details a failed CIA operation in Iran.

In June the Supreme Court declined to review a challenge by the reporter, James Risen, who is seeking to protect the identity of his source. The Obama administration, which has prosecuted leaks aggressively, now has to decide whether to subpoena Risen’s testimony and risk ordering Risen to jail if he, as expected, refuses to comply.

The Justice Department generally tries to protect the news media by seeking to obtain information from sources other than journalists. Federal law does not protect reporters from having to divulge confidential sources.

About 36 states have enacted shield laws, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. About half the states that have enacted such laws provide absolute protection. Others shield journalists subject to varied exceptions.

For example, New York protects professional journalists from having to identify their sources for information that is obtained in confidence and later published or broadcast. The privilege also applies to editors, employers and others who supervise the reporter’s work.

The bar exam, which is administered twice a year during the last weeks of July and February, falls this summer on July 29. Here in New York about 9,800 candidates are expected to sit for the two-day test.

Between now and then I will attempt to post one item daily that chronicles my countdown. The posts may be brief, excuse the pun. I need to memorize a world of black-letter law.

To start the counting on a hopeful note, BuzzFeed recently published a list of 14 famous people who failed the bar but turned out fine. They include Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Benjamin Cardozo, who developed the concept of forseeability in tort law and served on the U.S. Supreme Court.

This candidate takes heart.